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Tag Archives: Race Report

In my effort to get back to blogging, I figured I’d at least include one race report. I might go back and write race reports from races earlier in the summer but frankly, I’m not sure I really want to. We’ll see.

Going in to this race I had no expectations. My coach and I discussed my race plan, which was pretty much: Swim as hard as you can, bike as hard as you can, see what you can do with the run. I think I executed that race plan fairly successfully J

So… on to the race recap!

Swim: 39:19

I am a wimp when it comes to wearing my wet suit. I will flat out NOT wear my wetsuit if the water temp is 70 or above. I partially chose this race many months ago because I figured there was no way that the water temp could be below 70. Thankfully I was correct, water temp was 75 and was wetsuit legal. I of course opted to not wear my wetsuit.

So let’s talk about the actual swim. Boy was the water shallow. People were wading in water up to their thighs all the way to the first buoy. I tried to swim but I found it incredibly hard because my hands kept touching the bottom and everyone else was walking in water ahead of me. Other than the shallowness of the water, I think I handled the swim quite well. It was definitely not my best swim and halfway through the swim I honestly thought that I wasn’t going to come anywhere close to my goal of breaking 40 minutes. Well, to my surprise that shallow water came back to haunt us again after the last turn buoy. The last 100 meters of the swim were incredibly hard to actually swim so most of us (including me) just ended up trudging through the water. Good news, despite my swim fears, I broke 40 minutes.

T1: 4:22.1

Whyyyyyyyy did they have to include a ¼ mile run from the swim to transition?

Bike: 1:34.50

This bike. Amazing. The bike course was a combination of the Rev3 Williamsburg Olympic Course and the old Challenge Williamsburg bike course so it was very familiar. There were some rolling hills in the beginning and the end and then one “big hill” in the middle going over the Chickahominy River (this is the same bridge that bookends the Rev3 Williamsburg bike course), but otherwise it was mostly flat or at least “false flat.” My plan going into the bike was to just crank it and leave nothing on the course. I had SO MUCH FUN on this bike. For the first time in a long time I felt like I was flying. I looked at my Garmin a few times during the bike and saw some impressive numbers but felt like I was going to completely blow it if I kept looking. So I just went for it. Not only did I post my best Olympic Distance bike time EVER, I also averaged 14.8 mph which is significantly higher than any bike I’ve done this year. Yay me! So… on to T2 and the run.

T2: 2:45.8

Definitely not my fastest T2 time but I did need to get my legs together after the bike I just pounded out.

Run: 1:31:25

So my goal for the race was to go all out on the bike and then see how much time I had left for the run. My hope was to post a fast bike, which would ultimately give me more time to finish the run. When I came out of T2 I glanced at my watch to see exactly how much time I had to do this run. I can’t remember what the exact time was when I first glanced but after some quick math based on my run times from the rest of the season, I had a comfortable 15-minute window to finish under 4 hours. There’s not much to say about this run other than I loved the course. Some of the run was on a paved path, some of it was a dirt trail in the woods. There may have also been some running in a parking lot but it wasn’t that much. I do remember there being a ton of twists and turns and I thought that I was lost at one point as well.

On my way back to the finish line, all the 70.3 athletes were starting their runs. It was fun being able to not feel like I was the last one on the course due to those runners just starting their runs. I crossed the finish line was immediately elated because I KNEW I broke 4 hours, I just didn’t know by how much. My PR up until this point was 4:00.32 so I as hoping for any sort of PR. Imagine my surprise when I looked at my Garmin to determine my overall time.

TOTAL TIME: 3:52:42

For those of you counting, that is an 8 MINUTE PR! After the crap season I had this year and the lack of training, I had wanted to end the season on a good note and I did. SO HAPPY.

So that’s a wrap on the 2017 triathlon season. Even with all the bad races, I learned a bunch about myself so not all is lost. I look forward to the off-season where I can build my endurance and go into the 2018 season with a bang! And of course, thank you to the Virginia Maryland Triathlon Series (VTSMTS) for putting on a phenomenal race as always.